The Party of Democratic Action of Sandzak (SDA Sandzak) called on the international community to hold a conference about that south-western region in Serbia with a significant Bosniak majority, the FoNet news agency reported on Tuesday.

The SDA leader Sulejman Ugljanin said that Serbia's state institutions denied genocide ( in Boisnia's town of Srebrenica in 1995) and crimes against Bosniaks and that “special status for Sandzak would be an answer to all the issues of its population.”

Ugljanin called on the European Union, the Council of Europe, UN and OSCE to schedule a conference and “in line with historical facts,” solve the status of Sandzak.

The region belongs to both Serbia and neighbouring Montenegro. Its name derives from the Turkish word for Sanjak of Novi Pazar, a former Ottoman administrative district.

Serbia's official name for the part of Sandzak belonging to the country is Raska Oblast (the Region of Raska.)

The Sandzak Bosniaks have often complained that Belgrade doesn't respect its own Constitution regarding the equal representation of the ethnic communities in local institutions.